The Wildcard
by Heletherel
Summary: Three years after the end of JSRF, Rokkaku's son, Tarou, recruits a broken Captain Hayashi to aid him in a daring quest for revenge on the GGs. Tarou takes Professor K's place as a freedom-loving, roller-blading D.J. that appears to be in support of the GG gang. But by night he takes to the shadows and plots to take the head of every man and woman involved in his father's death.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, you…little punks…ha-ha…huhh."

Pistol in hand, Hayashi wandered in an aimless stagger down a deep blue alley of 99th Street's quietest block, flanked by mosaic-like spectrums of the most glorious, vivid graffiti the GG's had to offer. Each glance at all that visual noise sent echoes through Hayashi's frayed mind, so he kept his gaze deafeatedly downward at the dismal concrete ground, leaving his face obscured behind the high collar of his long, blue coat.

His thin, brittle legs began to shake and finally, the former captain realized how far he'd wandered. He had been so finished with life for so long that he'd avoided leaving his tiny flat in Chuo Street for the past five weeks. Now that he'd finally decided to take a little walk last morning, he realized that he was too finished with life to ever return home. There was nowhere for him to go. Not after the landslide of failure that had been his life. Still shaking, he finally made himself sit down against the metal wall of a warehouse as dark and empty as his soul. There was no point in even trying to move anymore, even trying to struggle. He let the back of his head smack against the unforgiving metal and gave in to the paint, letting his pale eyes wander up to the magnificently sprayed mural on the opposite wall. He could only see himself in that mural. So vile. So ugly. It deserved to disappear.

Hayashi looked down at his pistol, his one companion through the miserable past two years since the GGs had killed Rokkaku and taken over the city. All of the bullets had been wasted on briefly-seen, lively shadows and distant, happy shouts that could have easily been mere hallucinations. All of the bullets had been wasted but one. At least he'd cared enough to save one for himself. He had wanted so badly to empty this gun into the face of that leering, obnoxious D.J., or through the gut of one of his pawns. But he had saved it, knowing that another attempt at taking back the city would lead only to another failure.

He could take no more failures. No more.

Hayashi put the end of the pistol to his head and put his finger on the cold, smooth trigger.

"Hayashiin-san!"

From a purple telephone wire high above him, a dark phantom of a person leapt downward in a series of timed flips and turns, landing at one knee before Hayashi. The ex-captain flinched in surprise and then his face was warped with sudden insane hatred. The figure, a young man no older than the punks that Hayashi hated so, wore a giant pair of jet-black roller blades, sporting neon blue hair and black leather…well, everything, to go with it. A samurai sword with a deep blue handle hung across his back.

"Who the fuck are you?!" Hayashi snarled through clenched teeth, exposed by the curling of his lips as he pointed his pistol forward at the stranger before him.

"Me?" The boy asked. "I am Rokkaku."

"The fuck you are!" Hayashi's thin voice trembled before deepening gradually into something more powerful, but just as broken.

"I'm not lying to you, Hayashiin-san," the self-proclaimed Rokkaku assured. "I-am-Rokkaku. Rokkaku Tarou, son of Rokkaku Gouji. I am here to re-hire you as the captain of the Rokkaku Police. Working together, we can reestablish order in our city."

"Re-h…hahaha!" Hayashi shook his head. "I think I remember you after all, Tarou. Yes…Gouji's prodigy child. But being the son of Rokkaku won't solve this mess by itself. I'm through with trying to keep it contained. It only grows, no matter how great the efforts to stop it."

Thinking he had given the youngster a lesson in reality, Hayashi fell silent, expecting Tarou's face to lose its dangerously confident glow. What occurred instead was the last thing Hayashi had expected.

From behind his back, Tarou held up the severed head of D.J. Professor K., the master of mayhem.

"This, if I am correct, is the mug of the mouth behind my father's tragic death. I will take this man's place, gain the majority's devotion, and slowly coax them into turning on the rudies we both hate so dearly. Meanwhile, you, Hayashiin-san, will lead the Rokkaku police on a glourious campaign of redemption, providing the muscle, when needed, to drive out the "D.J.'s" lackeys. For redemption is always a glamorous thing in the eyes of the public. Do you agree to aid me in my plans?"

Through all of Tarou's speech, Hayashi couldn't rip his eyes from the sight of his so hated enemy's head. While Hayashi had been wallowing in a dark trough of self-pity and shame, Gouji's own son had risen to the occasion and took down one of the most seemingly untouchable figures in Tokyo.

"I'll help you," Hayashi promised. "But...leave some of the punks for me, won't you?"

**The plot bunny attacked me twice in the span of a week. I'm juggling fanfics now, on top of an original story and piles of homework. Don't expect quick updates, so if you want to continue reading, following will help let you know when I've posted new chapters. Also, there may be some character deaths (no one ****_too_**** popular, of course,) just as a warning.**

**Enjoy and review! :)**

**-Hellie **


	2. Chapter 2

"You got this Yo_yo! _C'mon! For the fifth time, jump…the fuckin'…canal!"

"Okay, okay! I'm trying, yo! Just not quite in my groove without Professor K's music. …Here I go-!"

_Splash!_

"God-damnit! You lazy little bitch!"

Beat fell to his knees and fists at the alcove across the canal, looking over the edge with boiling frustration. His "apprentice," Yoyo, had failed to leap over a particularly wide gap separating one of the Chuo street buildings from a little alcove, at which Beat was (rather impatiently) waiting beside a sparkling Graffiti Soul. At least they no longer needed to fear falling into the water. After the GGs had taken over Tokyo, the air was made cleaner, the water purer. The canal was no more threatening to them than a swimming pool these days, though it was still difficult to swim to the water's edge with a pair of heavy roller blades on their feet.

Yoyo dragged himself to the top of the building across from the alcove, sopping wet.

"I told you, I'm just not in my usual groove. But I swear you need a boost dash to make that jump," he muttered over to his friend.

"Then how did I make it over with two spray cans?" Beat retorted.

"You're a fucking troll, that's how."

"…You mad, bro?" Beat did his best impression of a troll face grin as he danced idly beside the Graffiti Soul.

"Goddamn right I am!"

Yoyo circled away from the canal's edge to get a running start. Carefully, he lined himself up with his target, then pushed off against the concrete rooftop and began gliding forward at a quickly building pace. At last he felt the front of his giant yellow roller blades tip over the side of the roof and let his legs uncoil like springs against the edge.

He already knew that it hadn't been enough to land him on the Graffiti Soul. But as he fell further, he realized that the alcove's edge was just close enough to grab onto. His black, fingerless glove connected with the white plastic platform with a satisfying smack, and, with a momentary struggle, he managed to keep his grip from weakening, long enough to get a second handhold on the edge.

"That's more like it, punk!" Beat half-congratulated, pulling his fellow GG to his feet. Yoyo snatched up the Graffiti Soul and grinned.

"You said Soda's meeting us at the green monument in the pedestrian zone?" Yoyo inquired.

"That's right."

"And we'll be the first to get there, because _now_ were doing things my way," Yoyo declared. "Follow this!"

Crimson flames bursted from his roller blades and the rudie catapulted diagonally out of the alcove. Aiming with perfect precision for a billboard, he wallrode across it, leaving a pair of black burn marks in his wake. Before the second was over, he had leapt off of the board and careened out of sight.

Unable to trace Yoyo's path due to his shortage of cans, Beat spied a telephone wire strung taut above the canal, much closer to him than the billboard. He hopped onto it, hearing a strange bang in the distance, and gained speed in a series of wild, dance-like changes of footwork, flipping away when he spied a metal ladder hanging from the top of a nearby wall. His skates connected with the metal and he glided to the rooftop with ease.

"Yo-"

Beat had begun to speak, but stopped upon locating his friend. Yoyo sat only a few feet away. His hand was gripping his side, blood-drenched.

"Yoyo!"

For some reason, Yoyo seemed not to hear Beat's call. He didn't even turn his green-haired head to return his worried friend's stare. He was looking at something else, Beat realized. Slowly, he, too, turned to follow Yoyo's gaze.

Crouched at the edge of an even higher roof was Captain Hayashi, pistol in hand. The middle-aged psycho seemed healthier-and happier-than ever. A long, curved wristblade gleamed on his opposite arm. His skin was fair but no longer deathly pale, and an almost supernaturally silver luster had returned to his stress-bleached hair. His trademark blue coat hung open to display an impressive set of black body armor beneath.

"Hey, you little punks," he greeted in a shrill purr, rising to his full height with a trail of smoke in his pistol's wake. Turning to Beat, he warned, "Drop your cans and I won't finish him off."

"Don't!" Yoyo's gasp was barely audible.

Two bright yellow aerosol cans clattered onto the concrete roof at Beat's feet.

"Good." Hayashi smiled as if he was talking to an adorable child. "Glad to see that you've finally learned some respect for _authority_."

"Hayashi!" Beat snarled. "What the hell are you doing on the streets again? Don't you realize that fighting us is pointless?"

"Fighting you? I was never really fighting you before." Hayashi began laughing in his familiarly maniacal, trembling tone. "It was all just a game back then. But the game's _over_ now, haha!"

With a contented, almost innocent expression, Hayashi raised his gun at Yoyo, taking careful aim. But something was moving up behind the Captain….

"Kiss your brains goodbye, 'Yo-yo,'" the Captain chortled, finger on the trigger.

"No!" Desperate, Beat whirled around and wrapped his arms around his injured friend, shielding him with his own body.

The following gunshot succeeded only in clipping the end of the metal spike on Beat's right headphone. Soda had come up from behind and grabbed Hayashi's arm, pulling his aim off-kilter.

"Shit! Beat?!" Yoyo began to panic after hearing the gunshot and feeling his friend jolt against the impact. But his pounding heart relaxed with relief upon seeing his friend stand up on his own and turn away, calling,

"Soda!"

"Yeah?" The fellow GG responded, using a navy roller blade to kick Hayashi off the edge of the building. "Are you okay?"

"Yoyo's hurt!"

The captain fell into the canal, but splashed over to the opposite wall and began climbing it like a giant blue spider, using his wrist blade as a handhold in the flat concrete.

"Get him to the garage!" Soda shouted, arming himself with a spray can in each hand. "I'll hold off Hayashi!"

Beat debated saying more but, for a moment, could only stare up at his comrade with worried eyes.

"Okay," he eventually conceded, hoisting Yoyo's bloodied body over his shoulder and leaping off the opposite end of the building, landing in the middle of the alley below.

"Get back here!" Hayashi cawed with blood-lusting eyes as he pulled himself onto the rooftop, immediately beginning a sprint for the alley.

"Hah!"

Boost-dashing off the edge of the taller structure, Soda barrel-rolled into Hayashi in a perfectly executed Misty and emptied a spray can onto the back of his exposed jacket. Before he had the chance to use a second, however, Hayashi threw him off with an upward sweep of his claw arm. Soda tumbled over the edge of the building and into the alley. Hayashi followed, using Soda's stomach to springboard his landing. This allowed him enough air to use his claw to wallride across a nearby billboard and continue his pursuit of Beat and Yoyo. They weren't all that far away; Beat was using all his power without the aid of a boost dash, but was weighed down by his injured friend. But the nearest corner was only a few strides away.

Soda leapt to his feet, dismayed by the fact that only three cans remained in his possession. Besides that, Hayashi was out of range. He was catching up to his targets. And he was beginning to take aim at Beat with his pistol.

Soda's only chance was to throw the can.

With a full, deliberate swing of his long, wide arm, Soda hurled one of the metal cans forward. It tumbled through the air in a subtle arc and exploded in a sunburst of high lighter orange on the back of Hayashi's head.

"Damn it!"

Furious, the captain whirled around, sending orange droplets in infinite directions as he did so. Raising his pistol to eye level, he fired at Soda, aiming for the head. Too shaky due to rage, the bullet's path went slightly askew, succeeding only in grazing the GG's shoulder, causing him to jerk back and lose momentum. As he began to turn away and continue his pursuit, Hayashi fired one last, desperate shot, completely missing his target. But as he returned his focus to Beat and Yoyo and saw them round the corner and disappear, his initial goal blocked out the urge to kill his pursuer. He began to sprint after them with renewed resolve, turning the corner with his pistol raised as Soda slowly built back his momentum.

Soda spotted a billboard on the wall across from him, just halfway past the corner. If he could wallride across it, he might be able to get in front of Hayashi and hold him off.

He reached the corner, leapt for the billboard, wallrode across it and soared past Hayashi with an extra jump, skidding to a quick stop to face him. Immediately, the captain swiped at his obstruction with his wrist blade, but Soda had predicted this and raised one of his last spray cans in front of himself as a shield. The blade was half imbedded in it and a thick, black spray of paint coated Hayashi's face, neck and chest. Stunned, Hayashi was unable to react in time to repel a roller blade to the stomach. He flopped onto his back, splattering the ground with orange and black.

"That'll teach you to fuck with the GGs!" Soda declared before skating off towards his friends. But unlike before, Hayashi was not done yet.

"…Little punk."

The captain sat up and allowed drips of vivid black paint to coat his open eyes as he took aim at Soda for a final time and shot, sending a clap of air into endless echoes through an alley now cursed. The bullet had severed Soda's spine and ripped through his lung.

Nearing the end of the alley, at which a telephone pole stood waiting to offer escape, Beat stopped with sudden dread and turned around in time to watch his dedicated protector collapse for a final time, lying in a pool of blood too red to be paint. Beat's expression melted into the image of a silent wail as he realized that Soda wasn't going to get back up.

Barely conscious, Yoyo had also seen it all. His slowly fading, upside-down vision was further blurred by sudden tears. But his emotion was provoked by fury, not despair. It was the sight of Hayashi's paint-soaked, grinning face that had pushed him over the edge.

"You thought that punk would stop me?!" Hayashi howled in mad glee, hurling his wrist blade from his arm. It spun through the air and imbedded itself in the wall beside the two GGs, severing the wooden pole that had been their only means of escape. Beat was about to grab it to use as a weapon when it was suddenly yanked away. An extendable cord from Hayashi's sleeve had kept it anchored to him.

"You're next!" Hayashi cackled, throwing the blade again the moment it had returned to his hand. Just in time, Beat recoiled and ducked away, pulling Yoyo off his shoulder and propping him up in the corner to keep him out of the blade's range. As the blade was yanked back a second time, Beat snatched a spray can from Yoyo's pocket, then spun around and stood between him and the captain, arms spread, resolving to keep them apart at all costs.

"Get back, murderer!" He warned, desperation dripping from his lips.

Hayashi still hadn't lost his smile; his white teeth still flashed like the Chesire Cat's in the center of his midnight face. At least his gun was at his side, pointed at the ground.

"I see we're finally back where we left off," he noted, cocking his head like a hungry jackal. "But I only have one bullet left. I suppose I'll save it for your friend, after this claw rends out your insides, of course." Proudly, he held up the paint-spattered blade and watched it gleam, black and white in a faint beam of sunlight.

A tear-like bead of sweat trickled down Beat's face to his jaw.

"Well?" Hayashi prompted, expecting some sort of retort…preferably begging.

Instead, a giant black roller blade smashed into his crotch with vomit-inducing force, bringing the captain to his knees.

"_Fuck_! _Fuuck! God damn…punk!_"

Absolutely enraged, the captain raised his pistol-arm, aiming point blank for Beat's face. The GG grabbed onto Hayashi's arm before he could pull the trigger and forced him to the ground, pinning his arm to the concrete. With his free arm, Hayashi swiped for Beat's face, but he rolled to the side, evading the wrist blade by no more than a few inches. Hayashi's arm swung again with even greater force and range, but Beat had already jumped to his feet and suffered only a scratch to the shoulder. Before Hayashi could get up to his feet, Beat aimed his only spray can for his eyes and fired. Hayashi deflected the neon purple spray with his arm and wrist blade. His sleeve was instantly coated in ever thickening paint.

Beat was so focused on offense that he hadn't sensed Hayashi's next attack until it hit him. The wrist blade, though unable to cut through his skin, snagged on his shirt in a desperate slash and hurled him face down onto the ground with brutal momentum, crushing the breath from his lungs. The more he attempted to recover or even breathe in again, the more Beat realized that he was too stunned to do so.

"Beat!" Yoyo was still conscious. He almost wished that he wasn't. He didn't want to watch another friend die.

Hayashi shoved Beat onto his back with the sole of his shoe just as the GG finally managed to refill his lungs. Without hesitation, the captain placed his foot on Beat's chest and pressed, forcing him to exhale.

"After all that, it seems you deserve the quick death," he decided, aiming his pistol at the GG's forehead. "Your friend can have the honor to die by my claw. Alone."

But just before Hayashi fired, Cube leapt into the alley from above and tackled him to the concrete ground.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 is here! :3**

**As you might notice, I am a big fan of Beat (not so much of Corn, however, lol.) Also, there is a little RhythXCombo fluff in this chapter. Please review and tell me if you would like any other ships included. I will consider all of your suggestions.**

**Enjoy! :D**

"So Professor K's missing, Hayashi's back, Soda's dead and Yoyo's been shot. What a fucked up day."

Lapsing into pessimism, Corn slouched against Potts's dog carrier as Beat gave him the news.

"Soda died a hero. I only wish we'd had the chance to recover his body and give it the burial it deserves."

"I agree, that would have been better…. You say Yoyo's with Cube right now?"

Beat nodded. "She knows a lot more about medicine than you might think. I'm pretty sure Yoyo will be okay."

"Now there's some good news," the GG leader remarked. "And you'll be okay, too? Cube told me you had a cracked rib."

"It's fine. I can hardly feel a thing."

"Well…if you're sure you'll be alright…do you think you could make a quick trip to 99th Street? Rhyth's over there right now. She said she'd seen someone suspicious hanging out there a couple nights ago…some guy with blue hair skating around. He might have something to do with Hayashi's return. Combo was going to join her, of course, but he hasn't come back from Rokkaku-dai yet, so…."

"I'll keep Rhyth out of trouble. No problem."

"Thanks, Beat. You're like the GGs' watchdog these days, aren't you?"

Though there was an amused expression on Beat's face as he left, he didn't say another word to Corn, even as he leapt onto the empty highway leading out to 99th Street and skated off.

_Dog? I'm your fucking leader. I'm _Tokyo's_ fucking leader!_

Corn still waved goodbye, grinning as if he'd just made the funniest inside joke.

That night, Rhyth crouched beside the open doorway of the warehouse, half lit in the ghostly blue streetlights of the alley. A horde of Rokkaku Police were standing at attention just inside, their backs turned to her. She didn't see Hayashi. But someone at the far end of the warehouse was giving them some kind of pep talk. His passionate, baritone voice reverberated across the metal walls, but the acoustics were so terrible that Rhyth couldn't understand a word of what he said. Instinctively, she took out a spray can and began swiftly scrawling the word "DANGER" beside the doorway in red paint. The other rudies had best be warned of whatever was going down here. If the Rokkaku Police were rallying here, that meant danger.

There was a sudden sound of fluttering, billowing cloth from inside the warehouse that made Rhyth jump with surprise. Stealthily, she peered around the edge of the doorway, looking past ranks of policemen to find an all-too-familiar sight.

There at the end of the warehouse stood Gouji Rokkaku's giant tower of evil. It had been repaired. The tarp that had covered it lay crumpled at its base.

_Oh, god, that hideous thing…!_

"Rhyth."

Rhyth swerved around to find Combo standing behind her, boom box in hand. Rhyth's pale little face lit up with life and joy and she pulled her partner into a quick, fierce hug, jumping up to plant a tiny kiss on his cheek. But when they stepped back, Rhyth was back to business.

"Something's going on in there," she warned, serious but unafraid. "There's an army of Rokkaku Police in there, and…Gouji's old tower."

Combo glided quietly to the doorway and took a quick look for himself. His eyes widened behind his sunglasses with every extra glance. Turning to Rhyth, he took her hand and the two of them skated around the corner.

"This is really bad," Combo muttered. "We have to find a way to destroy that tower. Hopefully they'll clear out of there soon enough and leave that tower unguarded. We'll move in quick and spray the fuck out of it, alright?"

"Yeah. Spray the fuck out of it," Rhyth repeated, sharing a quiet high-five with her partner.

Both looked up upon hearing the sound of a sparking telephone wire from above. A lone figure was grinding towards them. It leapt off the wire in a stylishly executed Method Backflip and slid to a stop at the edge of the warehouse roof with ninja-like silence.

"Beat!" Rhyth called in a whisper. "What are you doing out here?"

"I thought you might need some help," the GG answered as he leapt off the roof and landed beside Combo. "Corn told me you were sneaking around out here. What's going on?"

"See for yourself."

Beat crawled up to the warehouse entrance and the sight of Gouji's tower was such a shock that he had to put away his blue glasses to be sure he was seeing things correctly.

"Plan A: Spray the fuck out of it when the police leave," Combo informed from where he leaned against the corner of the warehouse. Beat finally turned away from the terrible sight.

"Plan B: Boost dash in there right the fuck now and get it over with," he retorted. "We have, like, at _least_ sixty cans between the three of us."

"But I think most of the policemen have guns," Rhyth pointed out, taking another peek to confirm her suspicion before skating back beside Combo. "Going in there now might be suicide."

"You're right," Beat agreed upon verifying Rhyth's statement.

"We'll have to wait."

Suddenly, Rhyth saw something moving out of an alley across from the warehouse. Its body was black as a shadow on the moon, and she watched speechlessly as it began to move towards Beat, whose back was turned to it. Only when its hand materialized on Beat's shoulder and it began to speak did reality hit her.

"HEY, you little punks!"

Before Hayashi had the chance to finish Beat with his wristblade, the GG whirled around and smashed him in the side of the head with his fist. He went to strike again, but Hayashi's stained glove gripped him around the wrist and held him off.

"What're you doing snooping around here?" He asked, grinning with paint-stained teeth, all green and black. "This was all supposed to be a _surpri-ise, _heheh!"

Inside the warehouse it was now eerily quiet. "Run!" Beat shouted to his friends. "Before they see you! Run!"

Combo hesitated as he saw Beat struggle against Hayashi's grip, but at last he did as Beat told him. Whisking his girlfriend onto his shoulders, he boost dashed down the alley and skidded out of sight.

"Thanks for getting them out of my way," Hayashi grinned as he forced Beat up against the warehouse wall at clawpoint. "My only real targets today are you and little goth bitch that saved your sorry ass this morning. Oh, and how's 'Yo-yo' doing?"

"…He's right over there," Beat lied, causing the captain to turn in the indicated direction for a crucial second. Immediately, Beat broke his grip and shoved him away, grabbing a spray can in each hand to have ready when needed.

"You lying little shit," Hayashi hissed from across the alley, pulling his pistol.

"You're seriously gonna shoot at me? Knowing that if you miss, the bullet's going to blast right through that flimsy little wall. You could kill anyone in that room."

Hayashi scowled and lowered the gun to his side. This, Beat realized, was the chance that he needed to run and catch up with Combo. But suddenly, Hayashi's angry expression faded away, replaced by a twisted smile.

An instant later, Beat found the blade of a samurai sword gleaming at his neck.

"So _here_ stands my father's murderer," came the baritone voice from before as a tall, dark figure glided gracefully out of the warehouse doorway. "Hayashiin-san. Go. Give that little spy in the blue dress the death she deserves. _This _one, however, is staying with me. Alive."

With a small, respectful bow, the captain agreed to his employer's demands and sprinted off in pursuit of Combo and Rhyth. The tall man followed Hayashi with his gaze. Thinking him to be distracted, Beat ducked out from under the blade and began to skate for the nearest alley, but was stopped with one swift, precise slash. It could have beheaded him. It could have cut him in two. But it had only sliced off every last wheel on his roller blades, sending him to the ground with bruising force in a spray of plastic bits.

"Do you think I'm really that unfocused?" The figure taunted as he glided over to his captive, easily lifting him from the ground by the back of his neon green shirt. "The son of Rokkaku Gouji was trained from birth to focus. He was also trained to infiltrate, chase and kill. And you? You rely on instinct, brute force and pointless emotion to stagger yourself through your conflicts. You are inferior to me. It could only have been by trickery that you managed to kill my father. But I dwell too much on the past, don't I? Let's think about the _future_. _You_ are going to tell me the exact location of the GGs' Garage."

"Like _hell_!"

Beat wrenched himself away from his foe's grasp, rolling to his feet. His shirt was rended to tatters in the process, but he quickly gained enough coordination to sprint down the street after Combo and Rhyth.

"What are you running for?" The figure called, as if he was only a confused friend and this question was perfectly reasonable to ask.

That was when Beat noticed the needle wound in his arm. He'd been injected with something and hadn't even noticed it.

Beat turned around and finally got a good look at the figure with the katana. He was about his own age, though without his wheels Beat was at least a head shorter than him. He wore a long, black coat and black pants. Everything he wore was black. Only his hair had color. It was bright blue.

_"…some guy with blue hairskating around…"_

This was the man that Corn had warned him about!

It was the last thought that entered Beat's mind before he slowly sank to the ground and lost consciousness.


	4. Chapter 4

**A little more ComboXRhyth in this chapter. And more fuel for Hayashi haters (mwahaha)**

"Take that rail. From there we should be able to get up to the empty highway overpass."

Rhyth pointed to the indicated sidewalk rail and Combo leapt onto it with her on his shoulders. To keep safe, he abstained from his usual flips and spins as he leapt onto the billboard across from the rail and jumped from it to a bright blue telephone wire. Grinding upwards, Combo made a perfectly timed jump to the the rooftop beside it and sprinted for the next wire that would lead to the overpass.

But something was coming towards them from the side. Captain Hayashi was zipping towards them on a telephone wire high above, to which he'd attached an extendable pulley from his wrist blade.

"You thought you could outrun me?! Ha!"

The captain detached from the wire, flipped through the air, landed in a crouch on the roof's edge and immediately began to sprint towards the couple. His pistol fired three consecutive shots at Combo's skates, clipping one of his back wheels but otherwise missing entirely. The attack had barely slowed him down.

"I guess it's too much to hope for, taking you alive," Hayashi cackled, raising his aim.

"Watch out, Combo!" Rhyth exclaimed as the two of them dived in opposite directions. Rhyth skidded onto her feet while Combo turned to face Hayashi and charged.

Shocked by the sight of the furious goliath rushing towards him, Hayashi hesitated to fire, overcome by the freezing grip of fear. Combo's shoulder collided with the side of his face in the next instant, and would have sent him plummeting from the edge of the building to the alley below if not for the captain's quick recovery. He latched onto a boarded up windowsill with his claw after falling no more than ten feet. With surprising agility, he vaulted back up to the rooftop and struck back at Combo with the blade. The GG felt a searing pain rip across his arm and looked in shocked silence to find it sliced open.

"Combo!" Rhyth gasped, her pale face flushed with fury as she sprinted for Hayashi, determined to protect her partner.

"Stay back!" Combo warned her as he caught Hayashi's next thrust with his boombox. The wrist blade had run it through in a spray of sparks and metal, damaging it beyond repair. But it had failed to injure Combo a second time. Realizing his chance, Combo reared a step back and then hurled his prized boombox with all the force his arm could manage, but Hayashi had sensed this action and flowed with the force of the throw, leaping clear across an alley and landing gracefully on the opposite roof. Kicking the impaled boombox off his blade, Hayashi grinned mockingly at his rivals, and the streetlights made his teeth flash a silver as deep yet bright as the unpainted patches of his hair.

"Will I have to kill you both?" He asked in his trembling, almost giggling voice. "Or can I just take the girl's head and be done with this?"

"Dream on," Combo growled. "I'm surprised you even caught up to us. What happened to Beat?"

"Oh-ho…you really want to know? If anything, he's in a worse situation that you two." Hayashi could barely keep from laughing out loud, the way the two GGs' expressions turned so worried so quickly. "He's with my 'employer,'" the captain finally revealed. "Yes, my employer…Rokkaku."

"Rokkaku?!" Rhyth shook her head, her breathing growing shallow as she tried to accept the impossible. "He can't be back."

"Oh, it's Rokkaku alright. I met him myself."

"No," Rhyth replied. "That can't be!"

"You saw his tower yourself," Hayashi reminded her, thoroughly enjoying his new power over his enemies.

"Well where are they now?" Combo asked, clutching the wound in his arm as he fought off the pain.

"Hmph. That's not for you know."

Attempting to catch him off guard, Hayashi jumped into action without an instant of warning, hurling his wrist blade straight at Combo's chest. The suddenness of his movements had cost him slightly in accuracy, however, and the GG was just able to dodge the blade. If it had been perfectly aimed, Combo would have at least suffered a graze.

"Rhyth, run!" He called to his girlfriend. Just as she began to do so, Hayashi gave an angled tug at the cord on his wristblade, causing it to swing towards her rather than return straight to his hand. Forced to use a boost dash, Rhyth barely outran the cold, steel blade and leapt off the rooftop in an elegant Stalemute Corkscrew.

"Fuck!" Hayashi began to sprint after her on a parallel path, leaping over another alley in his pursuit. Combo was hot on his trail.

"In case you can't remember, we have a fight to finish, Hayashi!" The GG roared.

"Well I have a job to do," Hayashi retorted, leaping sideways off the next roof and hooking onto a nearby telephone wire with his claw. He could just barely distinguish Rhyth's figure skating down the alley over which this wire ran. And by using it as a zipline, he was gaining on her.

"Duck, Rhyth!" Combo yelled from behind, skating after them with all his force. The next building in his path was too high up, so he was forced to jump down to the alley and continue without the advantage of height.

Rhyth doubled over at the last crucial second, curling into a tiny, rollerblading ball just as Hayashi let go of the telephone wire and dove for her. His claw missed its target completely, but he landed in front of her, turning to face her and block her path.

Determined, Rhyth used a second boost dash to blast past him and knock him off his feet. Without pause, she leapt up and landed on the top of a metal bar that slanted up over a tall chain link fence. She easily grinded up the magnetic surface and leapt off once she cleared the fence. But when she landed at the alley floor again, she realized that another, equally tall fence lay in front of her, cutting off all means of escape. She was completely trapped.

"Gotcha!" Hayashi exclaimed, sprinting up the metal bar at a determined speed. With a swift slash, his wristblade swung down behind him and cut the bar in half, foiling any chance that Combo had of following him. Just before the top half of the rail fell to the ground, Hayashi catapulted off of it with a powerful jump, clearing the fence and landing soundly on the alley floor.

"God _damn _it!" Combo roared, reaching the fence only seconds too late. Neither piece of the metal beam was long enough to use in getting past the obstacle.

"Hah. You were always too slow," Hayashi mocked with a glance back at his rival. "And Rhyth…I believe you wasted your last cans in that second dash. Tarou is going to be so happy when I bring him your head."

Rhyth backed away, gripping the chain on the opposite fence. If she attempted to climb it, could she outmaneuver Hayashi's claw and his pistol?

"Back off," Rhyth growled. "…Psycho."

In reply, Hayashi hurled his wrist blade straight for Rhyth's neck.

"Rhyth!" Combo exclaimed from behind the fence.

The GG had flinched to the side at the last second, and Hayashi's weapon only succedded in spearing itself through the chain link fence behind her. Hayashi yanked it back, breaking through the metal mesh with ease. Realizing the true danger she was in, Rhyth knew she had to change her tactics.

"Hayashi, please…think about what you're doing…!"

"Oh, I've thought about it already," Hayashiassured, aiming for Rhyth with his pistol.

"Wait!" Rhyth pleaded. "Just wait! Before I die…I just want to talk. I just want to ask you why!"

"Why I'm here to kill you, you mean?" Hayashi asked. "Well, that's a pretty easy question to answer. But I'll only answer it if your big friend over there beats it."

Hayashi turned around to find that Combo had already succeeded in climbing halfway up the fence, though the links were too tiny to get more than a fingerhold out of. Blood from his arm dripped steadily onto the metal cords. But if given time, his will would be enough to drive him over the top.

"Get out of here and I'll tell her what she wants to know. Stay and I'll rip her to shreds right here. And then I'll kill you, too."

"I'm not leaving her behind!"

"Combo, it's okay!" Rhyth called. "Go back to the Garage. You need to warn the others. Please, go."

"You know how crazy that sounds to me, Rhyth?"

"Go!" She shouted. "You've got to."

"Rhyth…" Combo froze, unable to break his stare.

"You can do it, Combo. Just remember…I love you." Despite the dire situation, Rhyth gave her boyfriend a final smile, sincere and sweet as it always had been. Numbed by her words and expression, he fell from the fence and turned away, skating off in the direction of the Garage.

Hayashi grinned. "As you were saying," he prompted, keeping his gun keenly trained at Rhyth's chest.

"Why, Hayashi?" She repeated. "I thought you'd given up on asserting your iron grip over Tokyo."

"Simple question. I'm back because Rokkaku has returned to the city. Rokkaku Tarou, I mean."

"A brother of Rokkaku Gouji?" Rhyth asked.

"His son, in fact," Hayashi corrected. "Rokkaku was training him to be a master assassin, an expert at all things quiet and deadly. Tarou would have been Gouji's right hand man, if he had succeeded in taking the city. Anyone that dared to damage or even question Rokkaku's regime would meet a silent death at the hands of his son, trained by the elite members of the Golden Rhinos. And Tarou had natural talent unlike any other. That's why…" Hayashi began to cackle almost uncontrollably at this new thought, "that's why, when I first met him, he came brandishing the head of your dear D.J. Professor K! Ahaha!"

"Professor K?!" Horrified, Rhyth realized that Hayashi must be telling the truth. Jet Set Radio had been giving them nothing but static for the past week.

"He could orchestrate this revolution all by himself if he wanted to! But a victory through shadow alone is not enough for him. That's why he captured Beat. Tarou's gonna make him tell us the location of your precious Garage. And then, in broad daylight, the Rokkaku police will be setting up Gouji's magnificent tower right on your doorstep. All of Tokyo can watch as you miserable little punks are sucked into oblivion."

"Well, Combo will warn them. Even you find the Garage, they'll be ready to tear down that tower and defeat your policemen. This time is no different from the last, 'Captain.'"

"Oh, it is," Hayashi retorted. "I've already killed one of your punk friends and injured another. Your little group is going extinct. And you're next!"

Overcome with laughter, Hayashi fired his pistol and hit his target.

**Cliffhanger :0**

**Please review! Tell me what characters you want to see more of.**


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter takes place the following day. You won't get to know what happened to Rhyth just yet. (heh)**

**Please enjoy and review! Not many people look at JSRF fanfics, so I encourage everyone to take an extra bit of time and tell me what you think. :)**

Static. Only the static that had once been Jet Set Radio scratched its way out of Beat's headphones and hissed incessantly in his ears. Beat had always _hated_ static. If even the slightest touch of it invaded one of his favorite pieces, he would switch the channel to Jet Set Radio. Professor K's radio station had never a moment of it…until now. But as of this moment, Beat couldn't hear it. He was out cold.

After first minutes, then hours of static, Beat was half awoken by the unique sound of someone treading down a set of stairs on roller blades. He was still too drugged to fully open his eyes, but saw just enough in a hazy glimpse to find that, though he was still wearing his shredded green shirt and scraped up pants, his skates had been removed and ropes were wound over his wrists and ankles. Without the so familiar roller blades, his sock clad feet looked even smaller than they actually were.

_And this horrible noise..._

"Finally waking up?" Someone called from nearby. Despite the loud voice, Beat's head bobbed and his eyes shut again after only a moment of partial awareness. The voice was forgotten, lost in waves of blank noise.

"You've had enough sleep for today," the voice persisted. "Wake up! I don't have much more time to waste waiting for you!"

Two sharp slaps to the head finally forced the GG to blink himself into consciousness and fully awaken to the static carving up his ears. He raised his head and found that he was sitting up in a sturdy metal chair. Only steps away there stood the blue-haired man from before. Behind him was an old concrete wall (they were probably in some kind of basement) and a little spiral staircase leading to an upper level. The stranger's katana still perched like a menacing gargoyle on his back, but in his hand, he held a new weapon: a thin, steel scalpel that gleamed in the fluorescent lights above. Its sight perfectly accompanied the never ending scraping that pulsed out of Beat's headphones, slowly corroding his state of calm.

"Get the fuck away from me." Not much fear showed in Beat's tone of voice, nor in his words, but it hung there obviously, like a ghost-white banner on his blood-drained face.

"Yeah? Or what?" Menacingly, Beat's captor leaned forward, a derisive expression on his face. "Do you know what this little thing could do to you? With two quick jabs to the ears, I could deafen you to even the loudest drum beats and the shrillest cords. With a prick to the spine, I could paralyze you from the waist down. You'd never walk, let alone skate, for the rest of your life, however long or short that may be. Or, if I'm feeling patient, I might just slice every tendon in your hands to ribbons. Your days of vandalism would be over, that's for sure. …The Golden Rhinos taught me well, entirely thanks of my father, of course."

"Your father?" Beat interrupted, cringing at the noise in his head. "Who is he and why the hell do you keep bringing him up? Should I know him from somewhere?"

The man shook his head as his hatred began to bubble to the surface. "You ignorant fool. I am Rokkaku Tarou. I am the son of Rokkaku Gouji!"

Beat's neutral expression finally changed, replaced by one of near terror. Fighting the static with his mind, his fist twisted against the ropes that bound him but failed to loosen it in the slightest, and it was now, at last, that the seriousness of his situation dawned on him.

"You're really Gouji's son? So _you_ dragged Hayashi out of the gutter? You restored Rokkaku's police force and his tower? Why? Don't you realize what Gouji was trying to do to our city?" A pleading tone invaded Beat's every question, and as he spoke, he glanced repeatedly down at the scalpel that gleamed so viciously in Tarou's muscle bound hand. Its prescence was just as menacing as its wielder. But the static was the worst of all. Louder and louder, it blotted out Beat's very thoughts.

"Enough with your questions," Tarou exclaimed with a frustrated gesture. "_I'm_ the one who's here to ask questions, 'Beat.' Now _listen_: where is the GGs' Garage?"

For the first time, Beat fully raised his head and glared at his captor eye to eye.

"I won't tell you anything that endangers the GGs, Tarou-san," Beat replied.

Tarou's once determined expression fell into utter disappointment.

"Trying to get tough with me already?" He barked through gritted teeth. "Well, I don't have time for that!"

Before Beat even saw him move, Tarou had speared his scalpel straight through GG's glove and hand with a single, terrifyingly forceful stab. Beat only gasped, his breath trembling along with the ever maddening static. Slowly he curled forward as the crippling pain crushed him from the inside out. Even Tarou seemed to stiffen. He only marveled at his own fury as Beat felt the sting of it and forced down the screams that tried to claw their way out of his throat.

"Father would be so disappointed," Tarou remarked after this moment of shocked silence. "I was too impatient, as I've always been. On top of that, I completely lost my temper." Frustrated, he shook his head.

The waves of agony that threatened to topple Beat's pain threshold were building to a crescendo. Groaning, he shut his eyes and his head hung low, giving in to the searing pain and the terrible noise.

"Oh, and now you're fainting!" Tarou exclaimed, smacking himself in the forehead. "What a waste of effort this was. I'll have to threaten your little friend's life next time, I suppose."

"…What?" Fighting the pain, Beat looked up at Tarou through tearing eyes. "My…friend?" Could he have heard him wrong due to the white noise clouding his head?

Tarou only glared, ignoring Beat's words. Eventually the GG gave up on an answer and collapsed into unconsciousness with only the overwhelmingly earsplitting static to comfort him.

**The plot thickens. (evil grin)**

**Next chapter will take place back at the Garage with Yoyo, Cube and Corn. Yey**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello!**

**Thanks for the review, icing sugar. I read your fanfic a couple of weeks ago. It was SO dark and depressing that I was beginning to laugh at just how unlucky everyone was. (You're writing is great and really funny, in a strange sort of way).**

**There's a lot more of Beat in this chapter. Also, Boogie makes her first appearance (she was my fave character, back when I was little). Warning, there are some pretty serious violent themes later in the chapter. Sorry if it grosses you out or anything.**

**Please enjoy and review!**

Yoyo was dozing on a bed in one of the abandoned apartments surrounding the Garage when Corn came running up the stairs on his roller blades and busted through the apartment door, startling Cube, who had been about to leave.

"Combo's back!" He announced, taking Cube's hand. "You should come down and see him. I think he's hurt."

"What about Beat and Rhyth?" Cube asked.

"No sign of them," Corn admitted with a worried shake of his head. "Come on."

Cube followed Corn back down the stairs and out of another door onto a fire escape overlooking the Garage. The two of them jumped onto the railing and grinded down to ground level. Then they skated over to the Garage's central platform, on which Combo stood with the rest of the GGs.

"I don't know if Rhyth made it," Combo was explaining. "I had to leave her behind. I didn't want to, trust me."

"Oh, god," Cube whispered to herself. Combo's arm had suffered a deep laceration.

"And what about Beat?" Clutch asked from the sidelines.

"He held off Hayashi so that we'd have a chance to escape. Somehow the captain got past him and caught up to us. Hayashi said that Beat was with Rokkaku. I don't know what he meant by it."

"That could mean he's dead, too!" Gum exclaimed. "Hayashi could have meant that he's joined Rokkaku in the afterlife." The thought added another layer of unease onto the crowd.

"I'm gonna go find him."

It was Boogie who declared it.

"You sure?" Corn asked. "It's a big risk, going out on the streets at a time like this."

"For a GG, I'll do it." Boogie glared at Corn, annoyed but not quite angry at him. Turning to Combo, she added, "…I'll keep on the lookout for Rhyth, too."

Without another word, Boogie hopped onto the railing that lined the platform and leapt away, heading in the direction of 99th Street. The others only stood and followed her with their eyes.

"So…you said Gouji's tower was in that warehouse?" Garam prompted.

"Yeah, good as fucking new," Combo confirmed. "And someone was standing next to it, making some kind of wacked out pep-talk. I couldn't see him very well, or hear what he was saying. But he's obviously the one who rallied the Rokkaku Police back together."

"We've got to do something about this…" Corn mumbled. As Cube began tending to the wound in Combo's arm, the GG leader dove deep into thought. How could he clean up this mess…?

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"Wake up, Beat!"

The GG gradually awoke as a large pair of hands shook him by the shoulders, followed by a powerful ache in his hand. Wincing, he opened his eyes to find that the scalpel Tarou had imbedded in it had been removed. The wound had been crudely stitched up and covered in a thin layer of bloodstained bandages. Beat shuddered at the pain coupled with the static pouring into his brain. He would give anything to turn it off.

Looking up, Beat locked eyes with Rokkaku Tarou, whose hands still gripped his shoulders.

"You patched up my hand…?"

"Didn't want you to lose too much blood," Tarou explained. "After all, you still haven't answered my question. You will, soon enough, of course."

"I don't think so." Beat twisted his leg against the restraints that bound it and felt it loosen faintly.

"You'll think different once I tell you that Hayashi's waiting upstairs. With your accomplice, Rhyth."

"No!" Beat shouted. "She's alive?! You'd-better-fucking-tell-me-she's-alive!"

"Oh, yes," the assassin confirmed. "Alive and unharmed. But if, in thirty seconds, you haven't told me the location of your little Garage, I'll call up to Hayashi, and he'll skin her alive, right here where I'm standing. I taught him carefully on how to do it just right."

"You sick _motherfucker_!" Beat jerked against his restraints but found that they would loosen no more, sinking his hopes. "You're…you must be bluffing! Hayashi could _never_ have caught her!"

"She suffered a little fall during her escape," Tarou explained. "That's all it took. Now where is the Garage?"

"Is she really up there or not?!"

"Hayashiin-san!" Tarou called up the stairs as he paced away. "You might need to bring down our new captive in a moment!"

"God-damn!" Beat shook his head, refusing the reality he was trapped in.

"Come on, Beat! Do it for her!" Now Tarou circled back, closing in on the bound-up GG.

"Give me proof that she's up there and I might tell you!" Beat reasoned. Bands of sweat glistened on his face and in his hair.

Tarou began to laugh in a low, disgusted tone. Impatient as ever, he struck his captive across the face and yelled, "I'll give you five more seconds, fool, and then the girl's as good as skinned! I'll drench you in the blood spray from her carotid artery! Hell, I'll make you _drink_ it!" With a strong, angry hand, he seized the GG by the face and stared him down as the air around them crackled with static and hate.

"Alright!" Beat relented, his voice hoarse with tension. "You win, monster! I give up!

"The Garage isn't far. If you get onto that unfinished highway that crosses over 99th Street and take it in the opposite direction of the skyscraper districts, you'll reach a dead end. The Garage is right beside it. Now let Rhyth go!"

Tarou stepped back, keeping his eyes locked on Beat. His neutral expression slowly morphed into a contemplative frown. At last he seemed satisfied.

"Thanks for the information, 'Beat,'" he said. "Things could have gone a lot easier if you'd just told me sooner, of course. But at least all my time hasn't gone to waste. Soon I'll be making a little broadcast on Professor K's old radio channel. I'll explain to all your little friends out there that I'm here to help…and that I'd like them to all stay put at the Garage so I come down and meet them. Of course, it will be Hayashi who meets them instead, with his reborn army of Rokkaku Police and my father's restored tower. I'll continue to broadcast old Professor K's best tunes. If everything goes as planned, they'll be distracted until the last minute. Meanwhile, you can just sit here and listen…think about what you did to them. But _now_…" something evil glinted in his eyes, "you'll be reunited with your friend. Hayashiin-san!"

There was only silence in reply, allowing Beat to fully wallow in the abyss of static that flooded his ears. Then, after this painful pause, he began to distinguish the sound of a lone pair of shoes descending a set of stairs. Sure enough, Hayashi was walking down the spiral staircase at the far side of the room.

In his hand was Rhyth's rotting, blood-smeared, severed head.

"No…_no_!"

Beat turned away as the static clawed at his ears and the vision of Rhyth's mangled, motionless face burned itself into his mind.

"She didn't deserve to die!" He yelled in a constricted tone, his face distorted by hatred and despair. "She had friends and family and a boyfriend who _loved_ her! _Why_ would you take her away?!"

"Simple," Tarou replied. "She helped you plot my father's death. He was going to make this city into something so powerful, and you, with her as your accomplice, destroyed all those dreams. Death is the only sentence within mortal power that I could ever be satisfied with, regarding you and your 'GGs.'"

"And she was fun to kill, besides," Hayashi added, grinning like a feral dog that had just slaughtered and devoured a duckling. "You should have seen her face when I lopped the first arm off. The sweetest moment I've had in years. The only detail I forgot was her last words, I'm sorry to say."

"_God_ damn you." Beat shook his head, still trying to accept the fact that his dear friend had been so horribly murdered. Rhyth and he had known one another since they were children. Her sweet smiles and good nature had never changed. Now they were gone forever.

"Well, Hayashi, I believe it's time you vanquish a third enemy of ours," Tarou began.

"And who would that be?" Hayashi turned to Tarou, letting Rhyth's head thud against the concrete floor as it dropped from his hand.

"Well…he's right in front of you."

Grinning ever broader, Hayashi fixed his bloodlusting gaze on Beat with new ambition lighting up his eyes, causing the GG to flinch with fear. If only that infernal static was tuned out, Beat felt that he might be able to keep his cool. Instead it multiplied all his fear, his hate, his sadness.

"You want _me_ to kill him?" Hayashi asked, expecting that Tarou would be the one to deal with Beat. "He was the one that, you know…"

"Oh, I know," Tarou assured. "He dealt my father the final blow on that day in Shibuya. But go ahead, _tear_ him up. I just want to watch…all I ask is that you make it slow. _This_ moment is worth wasting time for, after all." Crossing his arms, Tarou finally allowed himself a smirk of his own as he gazed at his broken, shivering nemesis.

Hayashi stepped forward, hooking the edge of his wristblade under Beat's jaw at a particularly threatening angle.

"I think I'll start with your annoying, pretty-boy face, 'Bii-to,'" Hayashi remarked, applying just enough pressure to break through the skin on Beat's jawline. A crimson thread of blood trickled down his neck.

"Don't!" Beat implored; terrified that at any moment, Hayashi could rip the blade's curved edge across his face.

Hayashi slashed, but just before, Beat risked jerking away with all his force. The wristblade cut a thin, diagonal line across his cheek and nose, but failed to skin him from chin to temple as Hayashi had desired. Beat had tilted so far away, however, that his chair toppled over and slammed onto its back against the ground.

"Jumpy little fucker," Hayashi snarled, swiping at his foe again. This time, he'd aimed for Beat's injured rib. But the GG followed the direction of the attack and rolled his chair onto its side, narrowly missing the blade.

"_Stop_!" Beat screamed, fighting down the maddening static that clogged his brain. "You've got to stop! You've gotta listen to me! Please, just listen! Hear me out! Lemme talk!"

"Oh, we're done talking, Beat," Hayashi cooed, raising his wrist blade as he pondered his next strike.

"Wait!"

It was Tarou who had uttered the word.

"Aw, come on, Tarou-sama," Hayashi groaned with impatience.

"Let's listen to him for a moment," Tarou reasoned. "You wouldn't want to pass up hearing the founder of the GGs beg for his life, would you, Hayashi? This could be hilarious." With ease, Tarou reached down and hefted Beat's chair back upright.

"So, what do you have to say, Beat? Just how do you think you'll get out of this one?"

Beat's whole body was going through tremors that physically mirrored the static gushing out of his headphones. He began to form words in his brain despite the diabolical noise, but his lips could no longer move with enough coordination to speak. His eyes bulged and his mouth twitched, but he couldn't make a sound. It was the result of his near death experience; it had put him in shock.

"C'mon!" Tarou growled. "You were chattin' up a storm a moment ago!"

Beat still couldn't force out a single word.

"Talk or Hayashi saws off an arm! That wrist blade was made by the Golden Rhinos. It's not meant for clean, quick killing." Tarou stared Beat down with fiery impatience in his eyes.

"…O-kay…I-…u-uh….I'll-talk!" As quickly as he could, Beat regained use of his mouth and tried with all his power to focus his thoughts, despite the static drowning them out. "I'll help you, you know? I-I'll join you. You said you were going to make a broadcast on Jet Set Radio to distract them…r-right?"

"True."

"Well, I can help, then. I'll tell them you saved me from Hayashi…and that he's dead."

"Oh-ho-" Tarou began to laugh in a half mocking, half impressed sort of manner. "We've got a mastermind here now, don't we?" Grinning, he turned to an equally amused Hayashi.

Still shivering, Beat added with terrified softness, "…I'll also tell them to stay put, because I noticed some rival gang members lurking around the Garage…and I'll be going out there alone to look into it. I'm their leader, after all. They never disobey a single order I give them."

In the back of his mind, Beat knew that Corn would hate obeying any orders coming from his former superior and would want to go out and deal with the threat himself. Then he might realize the plot against them soon enough to prepare some means of defense.

"Hah! Perfect! We'll get 'em all at once for sure!" Hayashi seemed about ready to start dancing in circles. Tarou, however, was beginning to grow skeptical. The eagerness remained in his eyes, but his smile had faded.

"A day ago, you said yourself that you'd never put your friends in danger," he noted. "What caused the change of heart?"

Fear invaded Beat's expression for a second time.

"Because…I…I just don't want to die. I know it's cowardly. But I can't face it." Beat's wide, wary eyes looked down at Hayashi's wrist blade, trying to prove his sincerity.

Tarou's smile returned. "Oh, really? Maybe I didn't need to pull that stunt with Rhyth on you after all. So you're just as afraid to die as all the rest of us?"

Beat just trembled there, enveloped in static, and nodded.

"Well, don't think you're out of the woods just yet, Beat. You make one wrong move, say one wrong word, and it won't be Hayashi who rips out your guts-it'll be _me_. And believe me; I know how to make a man scream like a little girl for hours on end."

"Understood." Beat's voice was slightly more stable, through his complexion had just turned from ghost white to a faint, sweat-soaked green.

"So you're still willing to doom your friends, in return for the _off_-_chance_ that I'll allow you to keep your life?"

"Goddamn right."

"You _really_ want to live, huh?"

"_God_damn right!"

Tarou smiled amusedly. "If only my father was here to see the state you're in. He'd be laughing his guts up. I'd be laughing with him. But without him it's all just not quite as funny, is it?" After a moment of silence, he sighed. "I'll let you out of those bindings in a moment. Just give me some time to set things up in the studio."

The assassin whirled around and glided over to the stairs down which Hayashi had come.

"Hayashiin-san. Watch him."

The captain bowed in response. Then Tarou left the room, shutting the door behind him.

**Again, please review! (Tell me if you think Tarou needs to die, lol).**

**:3**


	7. Chapter 7

**I tried to make this next chapter more psychologically scary than actually violent. I hope everyone enjoys it. :)**

**Reviewing makes you 10 percent less likely to be murdered by a ghost girl in the woods at night, lol.**

Hayashi led Beat into the studio, shoved him into an old, wooden chair, and retied his hands together against a spindle on the chair's back. Tarou glanced over at the two, displaying another rare smile as he adjusted a few knobs on his expansive swath of turntables.

"Could you at least let me stand up?" Beat asked in a whisper. He couldn't even hear himself over the sound of the static in his ears.

"Sorry, but…I don't trust you enough just yet," Tarou admitted. "Wouldn't want you to try running away again; you'd get yourself killed. That would be quite unfortunate for me. You're proving to be useful, after all."

With care, the assassin unslung his katana blade and reached up to rest it atop a set of speakers, out of easy reach from anyone shorter than him. Fighting away the static that invaded his senses, Beat eyed the deadly weapon, almost smiling at the fact that Tarou was, indeed, slowly letting his guard down, if he deemed it safe enough to lose contact with his constant companion.

"You think I'm getting careless?" Tarou asked suddenly, noticing the GG's stare. "It doesn't matter if I have that katana with me or not. I could wrench the life out of you with my bare hands, if I wanted to." With chilling, breathy softness, he added dreamily, "…Actually, that might be fun."

Beat looked away with a jerk of his head, provoking another fit of cackling from Hayashi.

With deadly swiftness, Tarou closed the distance between himself and his captive, startling Beat out of his wits. The GG flinched and his eyes darted up to find the assassin looming over him; his smile had returned. For a moment, Beat was certain that he would be murdered on the spot, with static crackling in his ears; he would be ripped open and mangled; beheaded and mocked and used against his friends…like Rhyth….

"…Let's get this little broadcast going now, shall we?" Tarou invited. His murderous craving had been barely abated. Seizing Beat's chair, he easily dragged it to the center of the room, where a microphone jutted from the edge of the turntables.

The first thing that microphone registered was a shaky sigh of relief.

"Now remember, Beat," Tarou began, "You tell your friends that I saved you from Hayashi and killed him. Tell them you're going to be just fine. But also mention that you're worried for them and want them to stay safe at the Garage. That was part of our little bargain, right?"

"Yeah," Beat whispered.

"Say no less and no more," the assassin instructed. "And when I do this," he made a cutting motion with his hand, like a conductor, "then you stop talking. Immediately."

Shakily, Beat nodded.

"Of course, if you don't stop, that's where Hayashi comes in." Turning to a grinning Hayashi, Tarou added, "Just drag him out of earshot of the mike and we'll deal with him afterwards, in that case."

The captain nodded, wrapping his hand around the back of the chair to be ready.

"Alright then," Tarou concluded, setting up the turntables and blasting the static from Beat's ears with a burst of music.

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Corn was the first to notice. That evening, his old radio that he kept by his bed in one of the abandoned apartments suddenly stopped crackling with static and then leapt into life. It blasted out the so-familiar groove of D.J. Professor K's favorite intro music: Victory Beat.

Corn immediately left his apartment, turned on the giant speakers in the center of the Garage, and called out to his friends, some of which had already gone to sleep or were just laying low. Out of the woodwork crept Cube, with Yoyo on her back, then Gum, Clutch, Jazz, Garam and Combo. They assembled before the speakers and stood in awe, as if God itself was speaking through them.

"Greetings, Tokyo!" A cheery, baritone voice called from amidst the blaring music. "This is D.J. Ao-i Tarou, here on behalf of our dear Professor K."

"What the fuck? This isn't Professor K?" Corn didn't care who said it.

"Shut up! We gotta find out what's going on!"

"Unfortunately, as most of you have realized by now, Professor K has gone missing," Tarou continued. "I'm making it my personal duty to find him. To all of you listeners out there, if you have any information regarding our-beloved D.J., I would appreciate it if you contacted me out here in 99th Street. But be warned; these are dangerous times to travel our city's streets, as I'm sure my guest here would agree with. Isn't that right, Beat?"

"Beat!" A chorus of GG voices called.

"Sure is," he replied in a composed but muted voice. "Sorry if any of you guys back at the Garage were getting worried. Old Captain Hayashi had me cornered, but our new D.J. here jumped in at the last minute. …If you think he can rock the turntables, wait till you see him spray some tags-" Beat's voice cut off suddenly and he laughed in a way that sounded like shivering to Corn. "I'll be okay, no need to worry. But you guys, on the other hand, should take care. This is no time to be roaming the streets as we usually do. Listen to your leader and stay at the Garage. Lay low. There's danger." Suddenly, Beat's voice trembled. Almost completely drowned out by music, he added, "…There's a _lot_ of danger, coming your w-"

"Beat's right," Tarou added after a boom from the track drowned out Beat's voice. "To all you GGs, stay together in the Garage. I wouldn't want any more of you to end up missing like Professor K. And now, in his honor, I'd like to play one of his favorite pieces: Koto Stomp!"

Tarou's laughter faded into the dark cool, groove of the techno and then was gone completely.

_Like hell I'm staying in the Garage!_

Flaming with curiosity, Corn dashed off the central platform and skated off toward Shibuya Terminal.

**Of course Corn wouldn't take orders from Beat (that's why Beat gave them) OMFG reverse psychology!**

**Stay tuned+review!**

**Next Garage scene will have more of Corn, I pwomise :3**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry this update took a while. I hope you all like where the story is going :3**

_"We're very close now," _Hayashi called through his headset. Tarou only smiled invisibly in response.

Only now was the assassin beginning to realize how far he'd come in such a short amount of time. Ever since his father's death, he'd drifted through an enemy-occupied Tokyo, aimless, grieving, alone. He had thought himself purposeless without his father's guidance; a tool without a user. But the strategist within him had bloomed upon finding Hayashi wandering down 99th Street. Now, a glorious victory was in his grasp.

_"It seems there's a dead end way ahead of us," _Hayashi informed, returning Tarou to reality. _"It looks like Beat was actually telling the truth."_

"Good," was Tarou's one word reply. He wanted to return to his earlier thoughts. They were just beginning to make him feel happy.

Tarou still wasn't sure whether he had truly wanted his father to succeed or not. Old Gouji had always told Tarou that he lacked what it took to be a leader. It was true that Gouji had been proud of his son; Tarou was a master of the deadly arts, swift and silent and precise with all manner of weaponry and environments. But Gouji had never taught him to plan…only to execute. In a way, Tarou felt that he was not only avenging his father, but proving himself to him.

_I am the best in _all_ things, after all. I've done what you could not. I killed your rival, Professor K. I made your nemesis, Beat, beg for his life. I galvanized the Rokkaku Police. I will be waging a siege on the Garage in moments._

_"Someone's down there. He's coming this way! It's one of the GGs!"_

Hayashi's voice startled Tarou out of his blissful trance.

"They were expecting us?!" The assassin roared, his small smile melting into a grimace of dread.

_"Had to be. D'you think Beat could've sent some sort of…message? Aw, crap, he's spotted us! He's running back the way he came!"_

"Kill him! I'll be there soon. But first…"

Tarou ripped off his headset and let it drop onto the turntables. In a swift, smooth motion, he reached up and lifted his katana from its perch against the wall.

_I'm not leaving without Beat's head._

It would be a perfect crown for his tower, a grim trophy to display mockingly to his GG prey as they cowered in their Garage. And leaving Beat unguarded would be taking a serious risk. The GG was obviously desperate. As much as it disappointed Tarou, he would have to kill Beat fairly quickly. The impending trouble that Beat had no doubt caused would require Tarou's attention. The moment the GG was dealt with, the assassin would take off for the Garage.

_Besides…without Beat to command them, all of the GGs' silly little tunes and riffs will dissolve into a self destructive chaos. _This_ will be the beginning of the end._

"Hey, _Bii_-_to_!" Tarou yelled, walking to the stairs, katana in hand. "I thought I _told_ you what would happen if you fucked around!"

There was no response, even as Tarou began to descend the staircase with slow, purposefully loud steps.

"You know, I might have let you live if you'd just played along," the assassin taunted. "But you've really disappointed me."

Tarou shook his head, smirking as he reached the end of the staircase. Lazily glancing over at Beat's chair, he suddenly focused on it, realizing its emptiness.

Standing in the back of the room was Beat, free of restraints. He'd chewed through the ropes on his wrist and untied the rest with desperate haste.

"You sneaky fuck."

With furious eyes, Tarou watched as Beat's hands rose to his headphones, still blaring static. Slowly, his shaking grip tightened. Then he pulled and lifted them from his head. Something in his eyes changed. The absence of noise…it felt so alien, so heavenly alien to him now.

Suddenly Beat grinned and began to chuckle. Though faint, the laughter had an unsettling edge that made even Tarou feel somehow disturbed.

"It's gone," Beat whispered in sheer joy, still laughing in his strange, soft tone. "The static…no longer?"

His resolve smelted, the assassin tore his katana from its sheath, casting the latter to the ground.

"Time to die, Beat."

"A-_HAHAHAA!_"

As a wild animal would, Beat leapt off the wall, bursting with laughter, and raised his headphones over his head, aiming to pierce the spike on its left end straight through Tarou's throat. The assassin, far superior in fighting skill, easily dodged the reckless attack and pinned his foe against the left wall with crushing force.

"You're pathetic," Tarou declared. "Give up."

Beat was unable to reply, due to the uncontrollable laughter that would trump even Hayashi's maniacal outbursts. With animalistic force, Beat fought off Tarou's imprisoning arms and clawed at his face with gloved and bandaged hands. The assassin sustained a few lacerations to the nose and forehead, but quickly pinned his nemesis again, this time with better effect. Beat still kicked and laughed like a child possessed by the devil, even with Tarou's katana at his neck.

"You deserve this," was all Tarou said before using his free arm to slowly twist the GG's shoulder from its socket. The assassin both heard and felt every pop and scrape as the ligaments snapped and the bone was pulled away.

It was now, at last, that Beat screamed…with laughter.

"You've snapped." Tarou muttered, once Beat's fit had finally died down into a soft but hysterical giggle.

"Just…kill me. …Kill me. Let me die…in silence."

Beat's pleas, barely coherent past his uncontrollable laughter, only served to anger Tarou further. Tapping into his true strength, the assassin took in a full breath and then hurled his enemy across the room with force powered by hatred. Beat slammed against the cold concrete of the opposite wall and plummeted to the floor in a limp heap, finally stunned into silence.

"I suppose I'll grant your wish," Tarou growled. "We both want it, after all. But I'm taking your head back your friends at the Garage. They'll see the failure of a leader that you were, and then I'll suck them all into my father's beautiful tower. They'll die knowing that you played a part in their doom and couldn't even save yourself in the process. They'll die _hating_ you."

Slowly, Beat raised his head from the floor and locked his gaze on Tarou. Though shaken, alarmed, and in absolute agony, the insanity of his former self had dwindled. He could keep the laughter at bay…

Just long enough to say, "You'll regret this. All of this."

Tarou was about to cross the room and slice Beat in two when someone came sprinting down the staircase. Both he and Beat turned to find a tall, blonde GG with bright blue rollerblades and utter confusion on her face.

"B-"

"_Mina_-kun?"

It was Tarou who called her by this name.

"Tarou?!" Was Boogie's reply. "Tarou, I haven't seen you in…what's Beat doing here?"

"Run!" Beat warned, struggling to his feet. "He'll kill you!"

Tarou looked back to his foe, realizing that he'd dropped his guard. He raised his katana to strike, but the gaze of his old acquaintance made him hesitate once more. Unable to resist, he glanced over at Boogie a second time. For this one moment, his whole thought process dissolved.

He couldn't…he couldn't murder in her presence.

"Go!" Beat charged for the stairs, causing Boogie to follow his behavior and begin the climb with rapid steps. As baffled as she was by Tarou's appearance, she had a sharp perception of danger. Now was not the time to stand around and ask questions.

"Wait!" Tarou called. "Mina-kun…?"

Beat charged up the stairs after her, determined to escape. Only at the sight of this did Tarou's trance wear off.

"Oh, you will _not_ get away!"

The assassin leapt into life, lunging onto the stairs. But his distraction had created a gap between him and his captive. Tarou wasn't quite close enough to slash at Beat with his katana.

Boogie reached the top of the stairs and dashed through the studio, reaching a door at the far end that she had previously opened. Beat was right on her tail. Together, they ran out the door and found themselves in the huge warehouse from before. This time, it was completely empty.

"We've got to get back to the Garage!" Beat yelled, sprinting alongside his skate-clad comrade.

"Use a boost dash!" Boogie replied, about to use one herself.

"He took my skates!"

"Well, fuck!"

In one strong, fluid motion, Boogie hauled Beat up onto her back. Holding him piggyback style, she powered her skates with paint and shot out of the warehouse with breath snatching speed. Tarou charged after them, but, canless, was unable to use a boost dash himself. As Boogie weaved her way through the 99th Street alleys and vanished from sight, Tarou realized the futility of pursuing them and could only scream hatred into the blank night air.

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